Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

If you've played any Tom Clancy game before, then you should have a general idea of what to expect of this game. This marks the first dabbling in futuristic technologies, and a bunch of features that I would personally love to see in every FPS type game, but lets just get into the nitty gritty instead of having me waste time with this preamble eh?

Story:The Ghosts (American Spec Ops, think along the lines of Navy SEALS and you'll get the idea) do what they do best when members of their own are taken down with dirty bomb when an operation turns out to be a setup. It's the military fiction that Tom Clancy is best known for in the game-space, and although some moments are foreseeable, it's believable enough that within the realm of the game it seems that the action could take place. The objectives here usually center around sneaking, and killing, with little side-goals that add a little flavor to the overall feel of being as incredible a warrior as the Ghosts are rumored to be, but the main story is mostly tracking down who's caused the death of your fellow Ghosts (and a mess of political-military policing along the way).

Sound: The audio team did a pretty good job here, each voice actor having a slight personality, each gun having it's own relatively authentic sound. The over-abundance of stealth missions in the campaign proper does cause a little less appreciation of the sound design on the weapons, as most of the time you will spend using suppressed weaponry. The environmental effects when they are around are done pretty well also (notably the rain), and audio picks up in the right moments - the soundtrack itself being a nice blend of various styles from orchestral mood sets to driving electronic pieces.

Graphics: Certainly not the worst game in the world when it comes to the graphics department, the environments are well rendered, as is the Augmented Reality that the soldiers use. The only drawback is during the campaign alternative vision modes (magnetic vision and night/thermal vision) are so useful that you miss most of these environments as you use them instead of normal sight. The animations are fluid, with the occasional hiccup here and there when things go wrong (so far I have not encountered anything game-breaking, more silly "that's not where the gun goes"). The multiplayer landscapes are rather mundane (mostly desert-like), although they are populated with cover, buildings, and various other things that add a nice battle-field diversity. The weapons themselves look authentic to their real-world counter parts, and lighting is also well done here.

Gameplay:This is the most important part here right? Well, if that's the case you'll be glad to know that the control real estate is pretty well used. Controls are smooth, and the only issue you may really run into is the "I got so excited trying to spin my camera I accidentally brought up the optic of my weapon and caused myself to die" that I run into. Outside of that, you push a button and it does what you want it to when you tell it to. Cover mechanics are assigned to the same button here as is running, which can be a bit of a hassle if you are trying to run uncovered for long stretches (where you may snap into it instead), but becomes very useful when using the games cover-swap mechanics. As far as multiplayer is concerned, the controls are just as good as in singleplayer.

In the campaign mode, each mission has set "goals," such as 'kill X people with an SMG without missing' and a three-part sub set of goals (usually pertaining to being unnoticed, destroying Y things, or accomplishing a task in X time) that can all be used to unlock different weapons or weapon components. The biggest downside to this aspect is that these unlocked weapons (although existent in multiplayer) are only unlocked for your use in the campaign. This makes later unlocks a silly thing, as unless you have the desire to go back and play the campaign a second time you won't ever use these items. Outside of this aspect, the campaign can be played with up to three friends with you for maximum co-op, and consists of a relatively decent length (on hardest difficulty) of 8 or more hours, depending on how skilled you are (I'm not some professional shooter player, so I'd wager to expect the average gamer to be around 10 hours of playtime).

The multiplayer, in contrast, will last you much longer - assuming you don't get frustrated first. You see, it's not that the multiplayer is bad, or overtly hard, but it's something the vast player base (especially when it launched) had a very hard time understanding. The game's scoring (on essentially every mode) is based around team-work, namely doing objectives (defend this item from the enemy, go blow up this item of the enemy, capture and defend this supply crate) which net the only real worth-while points towards victory. For the average death-match FPS player, this is freakish as it means that simply killing people doesn't benefit the team at all, unless that killing is done to prevent the enemy team from accomplishing their objectives (or yours, depending on what task is there). This can lead to frustration of numerous defeats when the team you are on continually fails to do any objectives - which can get very, very agitating to the competitive player. There is one mode that has a permanent round death, in which case killing the other team will cause a victory to be obtained, but this round is alone in its ways.

There is also a horde mode built in named Guerrilla mode, in which case the 50 waves alternate between a single "capture this location" followed by 9 or 10 waves of "defend this location", with progressively upgrading equipment dropping between waves. Although it might be possible to do with a single person, it's highly recommended that you try and fill out your friends list to get the 4 player maximum. Also of note, this mode allows for split screen mode.

Now, in every mode outside of Guerrilla, you have access to the Gunsmith - the single most feature I wish other games would incorporate. Here, you can toggle aspects of your gun (much like other shooters) such as rail attachment, optics, stocks, and under slung attachments. Whats different here is how the weapons stats are set up, and how the items then fit into these stat groups in a more logical, realistic way. For an example, take the two separate fore grips - one angled and one the typical forward grip. While one adds to the control of the weapon (the spread from shot to shot), the other adds to the maneuverability of the weapon (spread obtained from movement). What this allows is for the weapons to excel at being drawn and shot with success, or to be shot constantly without loosing as much accuracy. As a gun owner, it's a nice touch to see something that makes more sense than some of the more rudimentary systems out there.

As far as that goes, multiplayer weaponry/gear is unlocked separate from the campaign, requiring you to level up through play (XP gained from completing objectives, getting kills, supporting other players and calling targets). The level cap for these three multiplayer classes is 50, unlocking a new class after hitting 50 with each one (I have not gotten that far yet, so I can't comment on those classes), but its your basic division of weapons and play styles - the stealth, the attacker, and the supporter essentially. Granted, each one can do the roles of others, albeit not quite as well. Clan support (for grouping up with your friends) exists, as well as "challenges" that you can try and do to gain additional XP based on trying to one-up something that your friends have done (spot more enemies than buddy X today).

Overall, it's a nice addition to the Tom Clancy line up, and although it retains a fast-action type multiplayer mechanic (similar to CoD and others), it also has more realism injected into it (one or two solid hits is usually enough to take you down) and much more forced cooperation. If you plan on playing it for the multiplayer experience and you don't like to cooperate, you may be better off getting something else. If you're here for the story, various co-op options, and gun tinkering, then it is at the very least something you should look into renting to try out, or possibly even buying.

A note, however, about the game - If you plan to play it online at all, you need to buy it NEW. The game has your typical EA/Ubisoft anti-used code with it required to play online modes, and you will need to buy it separate if you buy a used copy (which at that point it is easier to just get the NEW copy of the game).